Staining rags eyed in Santa Rosa, Healdsburg house fires

Rags used to stain a deck ignited and touched off a Santa Rosa house fire Sunday - two days after a similar situation appeared to have sparked a two-alarm fire that badly damaged two Healdsburg homes.

Santa Rosa Assistant Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal said he’d determined the rags, which were placed in a plastic garbage can, sparked Sunday evening’s fire at a Bennett Valley home, which backs up to Annadel State Park.

Healdsburg fire inspectors suspect the same cause in Friday’s fire but were still checking Monday for any other possibility before making a determination, said Linda Collister, division chief for Healdsburg fire.

Spring often brings an increase in such fires as people get their outdoor furniture, fences and decks ready for summer, officials said. Advising proper handling of highly flammable oily rags is a routine topic for fire prevention officers, along with fireworks dangers and not mowing weeds in the heat of the day.

“It says it right on the can - ‘Flammable.’ It tells you what to do,” Collister said.

But homeowners or contractors at times still toss such rags into garbage cans and truck beds or set them up against walls where they burst into flames, setting homes and businesses on fire.

In 2011 and 2013, oily rags were the cause of two of the largest commercial fires in recent Healdsburg history. An April house fire in east Santa Rosa’s Lomita Heights was caused by oily rags, as was an August business fire on Piner Road, according to Press Democrat news accounts.

On Sunday, residents of the Las Mesitas Drive home in Bennett Valley were at a movie when their plastic garbage can burst into flames and fire started burning the outside of their home, Santa Rosa Battalion Chief Mark Basque said.

Neighbors called 911 at ?4:55 p.m. to report the fire. At the same time, passersby and neighbors used garden hoses to try to fight the flames. They also rescued the family dog from the enclosed dog run where the burning garbage can was kept, fire officials said.

Firefighters from the Yulupa Avenue station arrived in five minutes to find flames burning the side of the large two-story home.

They headed inside, set up their attack and stopped the fire from spreading into the residence, Basque said.

He estimated the fire caused about $25,000 in damage.

The residents arrived home to find four fire engines and a ladder truck out front. They told firefighters they’d just stained their deck and had put the rags in the garbage can, Basque said.

The owner of one of the Healdsburg homes burned Friday told fire officials she’d been remodeling and had hired workers that day to stain the porch. Firefighters found cans of stain and rags on the side of the home where the fire started.

Firefighters were able to save much of the residents’ property, Collister said, but the homes suffered serious damage, estimated at $200,000 for each residence.

Fire officials strongly suggest such rags should be soaked in water and detergent or disposed of in an enclosed metal container of water.

Collister, who also is the city’s assistant fire marshal, said she is planning to visit paint and hardware stores and ask managers and workers to remind customers about the need to properly deal with staining materials and to follow warning labels.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann?@pressdemocrat.com.